


Finally Found a Friend

by Phandabbydosey



Series: Deaf Dan Oneshots [4]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Children, Bullying, Deaf, Deaf Character, Disability, Disabled Character, First Meetings, M/M, Primary School, deaf!Phil, deaf!dan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-18
Updated: 2017-01-18
Packaged: 2018-09-18 04:55:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9368861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phandabbydosey/pseuds/Phandabbydosey
Summary: From this prompt - 'Phil is deaf and when hes a little boy (primary school) and is really lonely but there comes a new kid named Dan who, plot twist, is also deaf'





	

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is phandabbydosey if you would rather read this over there :D
> 
> Beta-ed by the lovely gatsbys-old-sport over on tumblr :D

Phil was a lonely child. All the way through his childhood so far, other kids had avoided him, not wanting to be near the weird kid with hearing aids. It’d always been hard for him to fit in, but he did manage to make a couple friends in reception. He’d lost them as soon as his classmates worked out what meningitis was and that it was infectious. He tried telling them that he’d had it back when he was just two, but they were all convinced they catch it and end up deaf if they got anywhere him. It was frustrating but, after a year of futile attempts to make friends, Phil gave up and just accepted that it wasn’t going to happen.

He was in year five now, ten years old and people still didn’t talk to him. After year one, people learnt they wouldn’t catch anything off Phil, but the damage had already been done. He was an outcast, forever labelled as one of those kids that just didn’t fit in. Even when he got his hearing aids in year two and could hear just as well as the other kids, people still avoided him at all costs. Just because he was deaf.

Phil had just sat down in his seat, alone as usual, when there was a knock on the classroom door. He looked up to see two people standing there, a brunette boy who looked to be a similar age to Phil himself and a fairly young woman with blonde hair pulled back into a tight ponytail.

Miss Lewis, Phil’s teacher, smiled widely and walked over to the woman, shaking her hand and speaking to her for a moment before kneeling down so she was level with the boy. Phil couldn’t hear what she was saying from where he was sat, but noted how the boy just smiled and nodded in response, not saying a word.

She then pointed to Phil and said something, getting another nod in return before standing up and getting the class’ attention. “Everyone listen,” she said loudly, resting a hand on the brown haired boy’s back, “This is Dan and he’s going to be in our class from now on. I need you all to be a bit patient with him because he’s deaf, which means he can’t hear at all. But he can read your lips so he knows what you’re saying if you speak nice and slow and he’ll have Miss White -” the blonde woman with Dan waved to the class, “- with him all the time so she’ll be able to tell you what he says when he uses sign language.”

Phil heard a few mutters make their way around the room and felt a pang of sympathy for Dan. No doubt he’d be subject to the same teasing Phil had dealt with for years.

He didn’t dwell on it for long though, because Miss Lewis had pointed to him and started walking over with Dan and Miss White in tow. She stopped beside him and squatted down, smiling kindly. “Phil, would you mind staying with Dan for the next week or so and helping him settle in?” she asked quietly as Dan peeked around her back to get a look at Phil.

Phil agreed and Miss Lewis thanked him before introducing Dan. Phil smiled at the brown haired boy, taking in the tanned skin and wide caramel eyes. Dan gave him a small smile in return and took the seat next to him, his interpreter pulling up a chair on the other side. Phil could see he looked a little shy so decided to break the ice, knowing Dan himself was unlikely to.

‘Hi, I’m Phil,’ Phil signed after getting Dan’s attention, giggling a little at the shocked expression that blossomed on the other boy’s face.

‘You know sign?’ Dan asked, his eyes wide and slowly filling with a cautious excitement. He’d obviously not expected to meet someone who could speak his language and was considering the fact it may be too good to be true, ‘That’s why the teacher said I’d like you. Are you deaf too?’

‘No. Well, yes, but I have hearing aids,” Phil replied, lifting his floppy black hair to show Dan his ears, ‘I can hear pretty much perfectly with them but I was six when I got them so I used sign while I was growing up.’

Dan nodded along, his eyes moving up to Phil’s once he’d finished the signing. ‘That’s really cool,’ Dan grinned, a small sound slipping from his lips as he signed, ‘I wish I could hear, but my mum said the doctors said that I can’t. My ears are too broken I guess, but I don’t mind. I’m used to it.’

‘Were you born deaf?’ Phil asked, quickly adding, ‘If you don’t mind me asking.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ Dan giggled, Phil catching a flash of white teeth peeking through his pink lips, ‘But yeah, I was born with a bunch of stuff wrong inside my ears so now I’m stuck in silence forever. What about you?’

Phil smiled sympathetically, wanting Dan to know he wouldn’t pity him over this. He knew how annoying it could be when everyone acted like deaf people were weak little flowers who had endured the worst hardship in the universe by having their hearing taken away. They were just normal people who communicated a little differently. ‘I got meningitis when I was about one and lost my hearing,’ Phil explained, finger spelling ‘meningitis’ just in case Dan didn’t know the exact sign, ‘Then got hearing aids when I was six and here I am.’

Dan snickered softly as Phil spread his arms in wide gesture then got scolded by the teacher. Phil blushed as he was told off, but Dan’s laugh brought a small smile back onto his face. Maybe he’d finally found himself a friend, one who wouldn’t reject him because of something he couldn’t control.

 

————————————–

 

Break time was interesting to say the least. Dan had told his interpreter that he’d be fine with Phil and that she could leave them be, so Dan and Phil went out onto the playground alone. There was a teacher out keeping an eye on things, of course, but she couldn’t see everything.

Phil was busy showing Dan around the little field just past the concrete yard, signing out the various rules regarding the expanse of grass. It was still warm and dry even though it was nearing October, so the children were allowed on the field, though Phil warned Dan that it probably wouldn’t last much longer.

Suddenly, Phil heard sniggering behind him and spun around, coming face to face with Peter Sheppards, the boy who seemed determined to remind Phil he was a freak on a daily basis.

“Finally found someone as weird as you are, eh Lester,” Peter sneered, laughing when Dan realised a few seconds later that there were other people there and spun around. His brown eyes widened at the sudden appearance of three more people and he subconsciously moved a little closer to Phil. Phil was glad Dan seemed to trust him already, though he wished Dan didn’t feel threatened enough to need protection on his first day.

‘Don’t worry Dan, they’re just idiots,’ Phil signed quickly before speaking up to Peter, “Go away, I’m busy showing Dan around.”

“You hoping you’ve finally found a friend Phil?” Peter asked with a cruel laugh, getting a round of laughter from his friends, “Someone freaky enough to actually put up with you and your weird ears. That’s the only way you’d ever be able to find a friend, isn’t it.”

Phil was never one to fight back, another reason he was such an easy target to the bullies. He lowered his head and blushed deeply, a few tears welling up in his eyes which he tried to hide with his fringe. This prompted another upsurge of mocking laughter from the other boys.

Dan noticed this, the way Phil shrunk in on himself and away from the bullies, and he didn’t like it. He’d only known him half a day, but he already really liked Phil, would consider him a friend. And he wouldn’t just stand by and watch his friend get teased like this. So he stepped forward, putting himself between Phil and the gang.

“Hey,” he said, his words struggled and clunky and malformed, but firm, “Don’t say that about Phil. I want to be his friend because he’s nice, unlike you. So shut up.”

(( **A/n:** For an idea of how the speech would sound, there’s a video [here](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DjwXR403QSJo&t=ZTJmYTU3NzdjZmY2MDdmYTdlZjkxNjE3OWY5OGEwNWQ5MGE0ZmFkMyxHRWhLYzRxeA%3D%3D&b=t%3AN_JeC9EU5am94ljix0BJTw&p=http%3A%2F%2Fphandabbydosey.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F103663257309%2Ffinally-found-a-friend&m=1) that was recommended by my beta. So give that a watch if you’d like to, I was advised that this would be the best way to show the way a deaf person would speak, rather than typing out phonetically))

Dan’s struggled speech made the boy’s roar with laughter and he felt his face heat up with embarrassment. He’d attended speech therapy for a number of years, but he had never been very good at it, leading to a general reluctance to speak and shame of his speaking voice. But one glance at Phil swept that humiliation away. He could see his words had comforted the other boy and reassured him that the harsh words spoken by his tormentors weren’t true.

Dan knew that by speaking he’d exposed a vulnerable part of himself and opened up a world of bullying possibilities, but he didn’t really care. Not when he’d brought that small smile back up onto Phil’s face.

Peter pushed Dan down onto the floor then seemed satisfied with the misery he’d inflicted, mocking Dan’s voice as he told his friends to ‘ged goin’. He seemed to forget Dan wouldn’t hear, but laughed his head off anyway as he walked away.

‘You didn’t need to do that,’ Phil signed once he’d helped Dan back up to his feet, smiling sheepishly, ‘But that you…I’ve never had someone want to be my friend before.’

‘It’s okay, I wanted to do it. They were being horrible and you didn’t deserve it,’ Dan signed back with a smile, ‘And that’s just dumb. You’re really nice and people are stupid not wanting to be your friend.’

Phil giggled and, after deliberating for a moment, pulled Dan in for a warm hug. He felt the other boy’s body shaking slightly as he chuckled, but focused more on the way Dan’s tanned arms tightened around him.

There was no maybe about it, Phil had finally found himself a friend.

 


End file.
